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Media Statement

The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa vehemently denies racist assertion

The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa is today one of South Africa’s leading luxury hotels, admired, awarded and visited by guests from across South Africa and the world.

The hotel is a reflection of the beauty of South Africa, and South Africans, the Twelve Apostles has become a favourite location for people from across our nation to enjoy fine dining, sundowners in one of the country’s most beautiful environments, and pampering stays in the hotel and spa.

The allegations, which have been put forward, are taken very seriously, personally, and deeply by the owners, management and staff of the Twelve Apostles and the hotel strongly refuse to accept being branded as a racist hotel. The facts are that the blog comments can be attributed to a regretful reservations error that took place at The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa over the holiday season.

During the peak seasons of visitors, especially over the Christmas and New Years to the Cape, The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa is fortunate to have high demand at the hotel. When this occurs, as is the case in many leading hotels and restaurants across the city, country and world, numerous challenges occur due to overbookings, lack of confirmations of bookings, last minute cancellations, unscheduled arrivals, or erroneous bookings. Still, when such problems occur, the staff of Twelve Apostles goes out of their way to find solutions to ensure guest satisfaction.

The hotel has conducted a thorough investigation of the unfortunate events that occurred, on the 27th December 2014. In effect, it was ultimately and exclusively due to a number of human errors on the part of The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa team.

Confirmation messages are sent out following bookings. There was no booking made for these guests. When the guests arrived at the hotel for their much-anticipated dining experience, they were allocated a table based on the time and size of the group, not the booking parties’ name. Once the error was found, no booking under their name could be found. The error was, no question, ours. For this the hotel is truly sorry and has apologised to the party involved.

In an effort to find a solution, they were offered the exclusive private dining venue on a complimentary basis, as at the time, it was the only available table in the house. They declined this offer, preferring to remain in the restaurant for dinner. As yet another cancellation occurred, which is not unusual at this time of year, the Assistant Manager asked them to move to the better located table re-seated the party. We are sorry it was interpreted for rudeness.

The management has personally taken the matter up with the guests involved making clear the source of the error, apologising for their disappointing service experience.